


Closed Suitcase

by drneroisgod



Series: You're All The Things I've Got to Remember [8]
Category: H.I.V.E. Series - Mark Walden
Genre: Anxiety, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fear of Abandonment, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Parent-Child Relationship, Separation Anxiety, it's not really emotionally intense but i hope it is enjoyable anyway, prompt from wu-zhangs-whore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-19
Updated: 2021-03-19
Packaged: 2021-03-27 23:55:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30130842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drneroisgod/pseuds/drneroisgod
Summary: Nero is leaving on a business trip—without Raven. When Raven finds its difficult to cope, Nero returns to remind her that things will be okay.
Relationships: Natalya | Raven & Maximilian Nero
Series: You're All The Things I've Got to Remember [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1478930
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	Closed Suitcase

Nero packed his suitcase as if it were brain surgery: everything precise and tightly-knit in his weekend bag without a cubic centimeter of wasted space. Raven watched him pack with a gray expression. It had been a long time since he’d gone anywhere without her. She had become his shadow, his silent vengeance. It hadn’t occurred to her that Nero even  _ had _ the option to go somewhere without his personal bodyguard—it didn’t make logical sense!

“I’ll be gone for three days,” Nero said cheerfully, ignoring—willfully ignoring—the long expression on the teen assassin’s face. “In the meantime, Colonel Francisco will continue to train with you and I have left some reading material for you to peruse before I get back.”

“Are you certain you don’t want me to join you?” Raven asked. “I could be packed in ten minutes, and you know me. I’d be quiet. No one would ever know I was there.”

Nero shook his head. “I’m sorry, Natalya, but Gregori insisted that I come to this meeting alone. He is a very old friend and I owe him the benefit of the doubt.”

“And if it’s a trap?”

“This my surprise you my dear, but I managed to get along quite well for several decades before you came along,” Nero said, a sly smile creeping up his face. “I will be fine.”

Raven muttered something under her breath, too low for Nero’s hearing.

“What was that?”

Raven sighed. “Do you have to go?”

Nero snapped his suitcase shut and gave himself the old once-over in his mirror, adjusting his cravat and straightening the lines of his suit. “You’ll do just fine, Natalya.”

Raven looked at him sharply, the bleak anger in her expression berating him in a way that neither words nor blows could. Nero had known this was coming: he had given her some of the only stability she’d ever known, and she was fiercely jealous of that stability, or what she thought was that stability. Whether she knew it or not, a few days on her own would do her some good. 

“Will you walk me to the crater?” he asked.

Raven’s answer was not exactly cold. “No, thank you.”

When he was gone Raven was alone in the room. She closed her eyes. Her breathing stuttered and wobbled in her chest but, she determined, she would not cry. She was too angry to cry and too sad to scream. She didn’t want him to leave, but not for any good reason. She didn’t want him to leave so he would stay with her. 

Even if he didn’t mean to abandon her, he might anyway. Raven’s mother didn’t mean to leave, but she did. Dmitri didn’t mean to leave, either, nor Tolya, and yet they had gone like candles in a hard wind. She would be alone again, on her own again, trying to fend for herself on the streets again. It made her nauseous to think about it. 

Anastasia Furan had once said,  _ I will never leave you.  _ Raven pressed her eyes to her knees and tried to breathe.

If Nero died, would she still be welcome at H.I.V.E.? Where would she belong? Who would look out for her?

Another, older, nastier voice in her mind said,  _ You’ll never have anyone but you. _

Raven shivered and tried not to think about it. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d never see Nero again. 

The doors slid open suddenly. 

“Still in here?” Nero asked. “You know, it’s warmer outside.”

Raven blinked. “I thought you were leaving.”

“I am,” Nero said. “But there’s a delay with the fueling process so I thought I’d check on you again. I know this is hard for you.”

Part of Raven wanted to yell at him,  _ If you know it is so hard, then why not stay? _ But she knew, deep down, that neither of them were built for easy things. In the end, easy things would never be enough.

“Will you be all right?” Nero asked.

Raven snorted. “Of course I’ll be all right.” Nero watched her, a knowing patience filling the silence that followed until she said, angrily, “I just think I might miss you. That’s all.”

“I’ll miss you, too,” Nero said, kindly. “But the joy of leaving is the promise of coming home again.”

Raven knew that coming home again was never a promise. But she also knew what he meant. H.I.V.E. had become a home to her in the last few years. She did not belong merely because of him.

“Walk with me,” Nero said. “After you drop me off you can join the colonel for lunch.”

“I’m not very hungry,” Raven replied, reluctantly drawing herself from Nero’s large sofa chair.

“Consider it a different kind of homework,” Nero said, herding her out the door. The anxiety on her face still gaped like a wound. “I can’t promise that I’ll always be here, Natalya—I can only tell you that H.I.V.E. will be here for you, even if I’m not. Does that make sense?”

Raven nodded. She didn’t feel better, exactly, but she didn’t feel worse, and that was something. 

“Do you think the colonel has tried pelmeni?” she asked.

“If he hasn’t, I think he’d be willing to try it,” Nero replied.

“Well then,” Raven said. “If he can try, then I suppose I can try, too.”

Nero clapped her on the back and did not pull away. “That’s my girl.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another Version of This Story:
> 
> Raven: i'm sad that you're leaving and anxious that you'll never come back and NOTHING IS GOOD AT ALL  
> Nero: have you had lunch yet?  
> Raven: no  
> Nero: well baby let's start with a sandwich and we'll circle back to your feelings after that


End file.
